Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Wow, That Was Ugly

Friday I finished the script and did the obligatory first two rewrites Saturday and Sunday. All I had to do was go through once more searching for errors, and print it, get it copied, and I’d be done. The producer hits town tomorrow and everything looked smooth. So what happens? I hit the wall and didn’t do anything Monday. Of course that was the day it was 2,000 degrees out. Actually, my basement office stays cool, but I'm tired of playing Rewrite Clown. Today, I finally got through with it, including printing it out by 4:15. I jammed over to the bank and then to the copiers fighting the rush hour traffic and made it back by 5. There was no reason this should have approached ordeal level, but it sort of did. Now I have to get ready for the actual visit. It could go really low-key. I could meet the guy somewhere and go over the contract. I did learn something new about the language. “The Owner hereby waives any right to equitable relief with respect to any such breach or alleged breach” sounds so ominous but it just means you can’t sue to stop something or keep it from being distributed, etc…You just sue for damages. So some of this stuff is less dark than it first appears.

3 Comments:

Fraud is a sort of equitable relief, in that it can lead to equitable relief notwithstanding the contract. Leave it to a lawyer to use the slight of hand to try to accomplish the impossible. I am a big fan of mutuality . . . thus I would instantly read "Owner" as "Either Party" to the agreement. If you don't like how they deal with you then I suppose you could sell it to someone else, for which the other party to the agreement could not get an injunction (equitable relief) to stop you. Funny thing, the notion of mutuality, to balance things out.

If you need an entertainment lawyer, I recommend Kohel Haver, here in Portland. 503-295-ARTS. He is very reasonable and he's done a lot of movie/music/screenwriting contracts. He's a good negotiator, and also will give you a good sense of what is standard industry practice and what you can push back on them about, if you are not already getting such advice from someone.